Adventures and Misadventures of a Science Fiction Writer

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Day 14: Missoula, MT to Laurel, MT

To save you looking it up, Laurel is on the outskirts of Billings. We didn’t want to stay in downtown Billings again; it would be quite a chore to really unpack everything from the car.

Today’s drive was what I think freeway driving should be. Traffic started out sparse, and didn’t build up to light until after lunch. Believe it or not, we were still driving on unfamiliar roads today; our first stretch was an interstate we had driven once before, but only in the opposite direction. We were better organised today, and arranged our departure time (0830) so as to arrive in Bozeman, MT ahead of the lunch rush. Or so we thought. Our timing was right, we parked outside the Nova Café at 1130. To our surprise, it was already lined up, but not very badly. Caroline has always wanted to have the Salmon Benedict there, but cannot face it early in the morning. Late brunch was perfect, so she ordered the TomAvo/Argyle Bennie combo. I had the Monte Cristo, and we were back on the road in under an hour. The morning weather had defied the forecast for showers, and we didn’t see a drop of water on the windshield until the afternoon. We have never made the drive from Bozeman to Laurel before, so there were new things to see. The last hour or so, it rained enough to turn the wipers on low sometimes.

Dingbat took us to a nice residential neighbourhood where we pulled over and changed 4th Ave. to 4th St, and then we went to our hotel the back way.